[Illustration: _A tornado near Elmwood, Nebraska. A painting made from what is probably one of the most remarkable photographs ever taken of a tornado. The original photograph was made in two parts, as the photographer was too close to get the whole funnel cloud into the field of his camera._ (Photograph by G. B. Pickwell)] POPULAR SCIENCE LIBRARY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF GARRETT P. SERVISS AUTHORS WILLIAM J. MILLER HIPPOLYTE GRUENER A. RUSSELL BOND D. W. HERING LOOMIS HAVEMEYER ERNEST G. MARTIN ARTHUR SELWYN-BROWN ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER ERNEST INGERSOLL WILFRED MASON BARTON WILLIAM B. SCOTT ERNEST J. STREUBEL NORMAN TAYLOR DAVID TODD CHARLES FITZHUGH TALMAN ROBIN BEACH ARRANGED IN SIXTEEN VOLUMES WITH A HISTORY OF SCIENCE, GLOSSARIES AND A GENERAL INDEX _ILLUSTRATED_ [Illustration] VOLUME ONE P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY NEW YORK Copyright 1922 BY P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY MANUFACTURED IN U. S. A. METEOROLOGY THE SCIENCE OF THE ATMOSPHERE BY CHARLES FITZHUGH TALMAN CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION, AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY [Illustration] P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY NEW YORK PREFACE Meteorology is the science of the atmosphere and its phenomena, including weather. Nowadays, when we speak of a “meteor,” we generally mean a shooting star; but formerly this term was applied (and it still often is in technical literature) to a great variety of phenomena and appearances in the atmosphere, including clouds, rain, snow, rainbows, and so forth. That is how the science of the atmosphere came to have its present name. Meteorology is not a branch of astronomy. These two sciences are as different from each other as zoölogy is from botany. They are both founded on physics, and they “overlap” each other to some extent, just as every science does certain others; but if you want information about the atmosphere, weather and climate, an astronomical observatory is not the place to seek it; while if you wish to make inquiries about comets, sun spots, eclipses, standard time, or the date on which Easter fell in the year 1666, do not apply to the Weather Bureau.